The presence of accelerated soil erosion in the United Kingdom (UK) has been documented since the latter half of the 19th century. For example, Fisher (1868, quoted in Douglas, 1970) records that in Norfolk:

Large-scale erosion events have been despoiled quite frequently in the literature, reviewed by Douglas (1970), Evans (1971), Reed (1979), Morgan (1980), Fullen (1985a), Arden-Clarke and Hodges (1987), and Speirs and Frost (1987). However, it is only within the last two decades that information has been systematically collected on erosion (Reed, 1979; Evans, 1980), after a plea in 1971 (Evans 1971) that the conservation of soil in the UK should not be ignored. The plea ultimately led to the establishment of a project to monitor water erosion in a number of localities spread throughout England and Wales (Evans and Cook, 1987; Evans and Skinner, 1987; Evans, 1988a). This project was carried out under the auspices of the soil science arm of the Agricultural Development and Advisory Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, and what was then the Soil Survey of England and Wales.